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Every year, AgileBits likes to gets its employees out of the home office. Also the new office, as it were. We want to get our increasingly global team, now over 40 members strong, together for all manner of trust falls, face-to-face time, and whiskey (ok maybe not trust falls). We usually prefer someplace warm, and this year it was both warm and mobile.

Mike Verde, an Android dev, doing his best 1:1 ship ratio

We call this newly minted tradition AGConf, and for AGConf[4] our Minister of Magic, Sara Teare, chose to take us on-the-go with Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas. It’s an incredible vessel, practically a floating city, which was perfect because there were plenty of lounges for us to commandeer for daily sessions of customer support and collaboration.

We took over the deck 14 lounge every morning to answer emails and synergize (no, not trust falls)

Of course, our all-hands AgileBits gatherings aren’t complete without the team taking on some kind of challenge. This year we decided on the Liberty’s FlowRider and, courtesy of our own Chris Meek and his iPhone 5S’s slow-mo shooting, you can see how that ended in the following video.

Our cruise stopped in Labadee, Haiti and Falmouth, Jamaica, which were nice changes of scenery. Both had their share of excursions, Falmouth’s port had your typical round of touristy shopping, but Labadee had a gorgeous private beach and a delightful drink invention known as the Labadoozie.

Labadee, Haiti

Abby, Dave & Sara’s insatiable daughter

Greig and his Labadoozie

It truly was a fantastic week. AgileBits has nearly doubled in size over the past year and it was wonderful getting nearly all of us together in the same floating city room. Emails were answered, great product and company plans were forged, and, of course, drinks were had. These trips are as much about getting everyone some fun in the sun (while still responding to customer support) as they are about making 1Password the best it can be. Now that we’re all energized and back in the office, we can’t wait to show you what’s next.

We took over the deck 14 lounge every morning to answer emails and synnergize (no, not trust falls)

You may have read that we recently returned from AGConf, our annual(ish) AgileBits company trip, the one where our largely remote crew gets together face-to-face, catches some sun, works together in the same room, goes ziplining, and more. This year, we also enjoyed a visit in spirit from mutual fan and Interplanetary Nerd of Mystery, Wil Wheaton.

It was great having an army of Li’l Wils at AGConf[3] for some bowling, The Big Lebowski Night, pool drinks, and helping with code. Thanks again to the good peoples at HijiNKS ENSUE and Blind Ferret Entertainment, and thanks to Wil Wheaton for autographing them all. Now we’re just trying to figure out what size t-shirt Li’l Wil wears so we can get him one of our snazzy new shirts!

You may have noticed last week that our customer support seemed… perfectly normal, as if our commitment to swift, human-to-human responses hadn’t changed at all. Funny thing about that, because it hasn’t. But for the week, we here at AgileBits were helping customers from a land far, far away.

Team AgileBits

An afternoon at the pool

workin’ in paradise

Panorama of half the Agile SotU 1 talk

DC’s wife says hi, Dan says “I’m not awake yet”

Merlin Mann brakes for karaoke

Our fearless cofounders

“You’re out of your element Donnie!”

also workin’ in paradise

The ziplining crew

Bumpy Express

Dan rocks the ziplining helmet

Kelly rocks the whole zipline

Agile State of the Union 2

Mikey got bubbled

Everybody look casual

Most of us just got home from what we like to call AGConf, an occasional gathering of the remote AgileBits crew. For AGConf[3] this year, we visited Now Larimar in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and while spandex suits and cosplay were not on the menu (for our team, anyway), we did:

Yes, “pontificate” and “drinks” and “beach” were in there, all while making sure the most important part of the company (psssst—that’s our customers) were taken care of. Your eyes also do not deceive you—”the future” and “1Password” were indeed on the AGConf[3] schedule. We have some incredible stuff lined up for 1Password 4 for Mac and beyond, and though I shouldn’t spill anything yet, I sure did consider it.

AGConf[3] was a fantastic success. We had a great time seeing each other, making new friends with the new members of our growing team, answering and collaborating on support tickets as a team in the same room, and introducing Kyle to the Coconut Rum Mojito. In fact, a very special guest and 1Password fan even graced our presence in spirit.

More on that in my next post.

https://blog.agilebits.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/agilebits@2x-2014-logo.png00David Chartierhttps://blog.agilebits.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/agilebits@2x-2014-logo.pngDavid Chartier2013-03-19 09:19:062013-03-20 11:40:51AGConf[3] is one for the books, and the future

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